Sponsibility for the fertility of the crop t o supernatural agen cies; on the other. ethnographic evidence indicates that insuffi ciency stems in no small part from the ...
PADI, PUNS AND THE ATTRIBUTION OF RESPONSIBILITY I Mark Hobart
One of the more intriguing forms of symbolism in Bali i s In certain agri based upon a somewhat uncommon use of nature. cultural ceremonies, various species of widel y-found plant, other wise o stensibly un important, are accorded a temporary ritual pro minen ce . This is largel y , it seems, becau s e their normal desig nations refer in some way to the condition s of ideal cultivation, in particular to the pha ses of growth and the harvest yields, of irrigated ri ce . [n each instance, there is a terminological a ssoc iation which relies on the systematic employment of homonymy or as sonance, in a broad sense. While this does not preclude the possibility of other types of link so far untraced it sug gests the relevance of language and sens or y resemblances , in the formation of symbolic connexion s . in a manner which may previousl y have been overlooked. 2 l
An examination of the theme and stated purpose of these cyclical rituals - the re-enactment and encouragement of success ful agriculture - poses broader questions about their sociological funct ion. Although the concern s are not unfamiliar, some of the more obvious approaches seem to fall short of providing an approp riate answer. This is so. for example. for arguments in terms such as the re-affirmation of social solidarity; as mystical alternative s in the face of technological inadequacy (Beattie 1964: 207); as a method of mnemonics and ord ering experience (Douglas 1966: 58-72; 1968: 369); and, additionally. as a regula ting mechanism for cu ltivati on (Geertz 196 7: 233; 1972a: 30-32; cf. 1966a: 6-9; 28-9; 1966b: 52). For, mos t agricultural cere monies are performed by indivi dual farmers alone on their rice fields; capital investment in techn ica l installations offers a potential means of subst ant ially reducing risks and uncertaint y; while the frequent disjuncture between the timing of offerings and the developmental s tages of rice, with i ts concomitant work schedules, points t o the weaknesses of hypotheses based on either the naive instrumentality or the organisational character of these rites. Under such circumstances, an interesting interpre tation is suggested by the contrast of cultural statements of be lief with an analysis of economic relationship s in practice. On the one hand. religion emphasises the attribution of final r e Sponsibility for the fertility of the crop t o supernatural agen cies; on the other. ethnographic evidenc e indicates that insuffi cienc y stems in no small part from the problems in socia l coopera tion and in the democratic constitution of irrigation association s . For their structure tends to lead to the dominance of small-scale farmers. to a relatively low level o f investment and possible con flicts of interest which are denied public express ion. Agricul tural ceremonies may, therefore embody an alternati ve explanation l
55
for the deficiences of, and stresses within, the basic productive groups , and so may indirectly help to maintain them and the accom panying ideal of the stri ct equality of members of a corporation a
The organi sa tion of irri ga t ed agriculture in certain part s of 8ali has been de sc rib ed in some de taila 3 In most feature s, the r egion round the settl ern ent of Tengahpadang in Central Gian yar, from which the information used here is drawn, corresponds with existing accounts. Rice forms the main subsistence product a nd i s obtained through an int ensive system of annual double cropping of a number of vari e ties , most of which take some five months from seed to harvest , and jus t und e r six to complete a cycle (cf. Adat rechtbundeZs XV: SO). Irrigation i s co ntro ll ed by a specia l group, th e Bubak , composed of person s whose terra ces a r e fed from a si ngl e source . In this case, most riceland owned by the villagers lies on a long s loping r i dge supplied by a lo cal association known as Subak Langkih. From a river dam about five mile s ups tream, the water is led a tortuou s route between ravi nes, through an intricate sys t em o f aqueducts, canals and dividing blocks of different sizes, eventual ly to individual plo ts. The i rrigation work s are tec hn ica ll y ingeni ous , but rel y far more on the extensive use of labour t o maintain the simp le conduits, generall y of earth or mud and stones, than on capi tal for secure, nowada ys co ncret e, st ruc tures (Liefrinck 1969: 47 -5 7). As a result, pa tChing breaches is an almost inc essant activity , espe cia ll y in the rainy season (nor i s thi s an isolated in s tance , see Li efrinck 1969: 21). This whole system i s under the management of the subak, which a ll oca tes wate r, co llects it s own agreed taxes and super vises much of th e da y- t o-day admi ni s trat ion. Owi ng to it s size and topog raphy, Subak Langkih i s divided into five t erritoriall y di screte, but adjacent, sections, or tempek. each \o\'ith its own sub-channel, counci l and offici al s , under an overall head. the Hian pekaseh. I t is from these that the pea sa nt farmers ac quire water in units o f tenah , a proportion of the total flow, adequate here to irrigate on a verage roughly a third of a hec tare (Geert z 1967 : 230-31; but cf . Adatrechtbunde Zs XV: 44; i n Tenga hpadang thi s is commonly known as (bi)bit tenah, see Ada trechtbundeZs XV : 37) . Unlike the settlement wards, or ban.far , persistent facti onalism does not s eem to be a salient feature of subak in thi s area . Th e main informal cleavage is between the restri c ted number of large cultivators and the majority with on e bit tenah or les s , in c lud i ng some share-c r oppers who unde r take the oOligations of members as part of their agreement . 4 While the association assess es it s own l evies according to the quantity of wat e r obtained, labour a nd voting rights are per capita, not de pendent on th e s ize of holdings. Thus, ' subsis t ence farmers' comprise mos t of th e membe rship, preponderate at the meetings where collective deci sions are reached and influence the direc tion of publi c policy.
The timing of agriculture generall y is regulated through the head of the subak in conjunction with its temple priest, or pemangku , and may form part of a regi onal arrangement for stag ger ing the distri bution of water supp lie s (Ada trechtbundeZs XV: 51 - 2; Geertz 1972a: 30-3 1; cf. Liefrinck 1969: 62-3) . For ritua l, this i s complicated by the e xistence of two s eparate ca lendars in Tengahpadang and elsewhere (see Goris 1960a: 118; Gra der 1960: 276 -8) whi ch are of some importance in th e fo llOW ing di sc us sion. The first is the Hindu system (Goris 196Qa : 115-6 ) of twelve sola r-lunar months , in whi c h the principa l dates of religiou s signifi cance are the full moon , purnama, and the new moon, tilem. The second is the so - called Javane se Balinese, or uku, ca l e nd ar , based on the numerical compu tation of a set of co ncurrent weeks, ranging in length from one to ten days, in wh ich the combination of the three mo s t important weeks, of five, six and seven da ys, defines a fixed 210- da y cyc le. The uku system in particular is complete ly di vo rced, therefore , from the flow of observabl e nat ura l ev ent s and seems to form a separate taxonomic and co nceptual framework (Geertz 1966b: 42 53), in whi c h the permutations empha s ise it s dist i nct, abstract mathemati cal order. S Apart from the i r mundane app l ication , these two schemes between them establish the dates for scheduled religious holidays and temple fes ti vals, and i nd icate auspicious or dan gero us peri ods for a wide variety of activities. In Subak Langkih, both calendrical systems intersect in the organ i sation of t he rice - cycle rites. 6 So, f or example, the mai n templ e fe s tival, (pi)odalan agung occ urs on PUrnama Kedasa, or every ful l moon of the tenth sola r-lunar month; wherea s the regular offering s in th e ricefie ld s normall y fa ll on every fif teenth day. or kajeng- manis , by the overlap o f kajeng, th e third da y of the three-da y week, with umanis, th e first day of the five-day week. Although Geertz ha s argued that the ceremoni es are synchronised with the s tages of cu lt iva ti on (see be low), i n Tengahpadang at least, there is no simple correspondence, for the rite s follow a largely predetermi ned pattern, There is another complexity . The agricultura l seasons alternate in thi s area between a r igoro usl y super vised cyc le, r eferred t o as kertamasa, in whi c h all work and r itual are co ordinated in theory through the head of the assoc iation on pain of punishment, and a n open one, gegadon (Liefrinck 1927: 153; Wirz 1927: 249), when each farmer is notionall y free to deci de his own schedule. In effect, the diff erence is not always so great, as the peasants fear increased damage from migrat i ng pests if the harves ting is seria l. One concomitant of this seasonal oscillation is that certain major ceremonie s are per formed in full only during kertamasa ;7 and, to confu se neat theories of timing still further, one of the se , nyungsung (s uppo sedly co-ordinat ed with the 'pregn ancy' of the rice, beling , when the growing pani cle ca us es the plant to swell, Grist 1953: 46; see Table 1) s hould follow the SOlar-lunar calen dar in kertamasa , but the uku system for gegadon!
attempt to analyse the entire series of ceremonies, offerings and prayers would prove a daunting, if not impossible, task and is be yond the scope of the present work. One small part of this complex, however, does contain a relatively discrete set of ritual elements, which are of some theoretical interest, for their novelty if nothing else, as they appear to be based on the recognition of different forms of sound association, in par ticular homonymy and assonance, and the possible applications of these in a more Or less ordered fashion in symbolisation. Nor is the use of such types of correspondence restricted to agricul tural rites alone. A similar development of language forms i s evident in other contexts, for example in verse and proverbs, in the traditional 'romantic operettas', arja (~1cPhee 1966: 7; cf. 294-303), or even the 11umble, but inveterate, Balinese habit of punning. An
The verse form of the quatrain, known among the ~1alays as the pantun , i s also found in Bali (sometimes under the name of sesenggakan; cf. van der Tuuk 1897). This consists of two couplets, arranged so that ideally there is systematic a Ssonance between th e first and third lin es, and also the second and fourth. The opening couplet may provide an allusive reference to a theme taken up more directly in its successor, or they may be effectiv~ ly unrelat ed (for a more detailed discussion, see wilkinson & Winst edt 1957). Commonly the first two lines alone are spoken in Bali , the audience either knowing or being left to infer the remainder through assonance. Significantly perhaps, quatrains may be found in a reli gious setting. For instance, the temple of Duur Bingin in Tengahpadang possesses a pair of deities, the Barong Lanaung, who are manifest as gigantic puppets in the guise of a black male and a white female (Covarrubias 1937: 287 0 355-6). This couple has, it is believed, the power to confer fertility on childless marriages and are recognised throughout much of the is land. In the month follOwing the religious holiday of Galungan (according to the Javanese-Balinese calendar; Gori s 1960a: 124 5), they are carried around the villages and animat ed from in side by trained members of a voluntary association, accompanied by an orchestra. A speciality of this pair is the paid perfor mance of songs, not infrequently with explicitly sexual over tones! In the example which follOWS, the structure can be seen clearly, although there is no particular link between the couplets. Here, the initial two lines are essentially non sense phrases which provide the pattern for the closing section. A rough translation follOWS: Sok pecok pedemin cicing,
Memula lateng di Bangkiangsidem,
Nyaka bocok, nyaka tusing,
lamun suba anteng ajak medem.
58
A dented basket slept on by a dog.
Planting nettles in Bangkiangsidem (a village in
East Bali). I like her whether she is ugly or not, Provided that she is prepared to sleep with me. A similar, if simpler, form is found in some proverb s , sesongaan, such as: Celabingkah di batan biyu.
Gumi linggah ajak liyu.
Broken potsherd s (or tiles) beneath a banana tree, The world i s big (broad) with much (in it). Deliberate plays on homophones, or homonyms, in punning is found in village conversation and exchanges, particularly in public on the roads and in coffee-stalls. A simple illustration from one of the most adept perpetrators in Tengahpadang should suffice. The standard form of greeting in Bal i is to ask the other person where they are going, which elicits a reply varying with the amount of information it is wished to convey. In ordi nary Balinese this is tbakal kija?' (literally: where will you (go) to?). normally shortened to 'karl) kija?'. with the terminal -l, elided. On being addres s ed once, the punster chose to mis interpret this as 'kaki J'a?', or 'where is your grandfather?'. So he riposted accordingly with 'di semai!', 'in the graveyard!' - to hoots of laughter from bystanders. On another occasion, with a political undercurrent, he shamed publicly an unpopular local offiCial,S notorious for muddling Balines e and Indonesian (the national language), by treating the s ame question as a lin guistic hybrid. Here, l ka (l ) kija?' was construed as the Indo nesian kaki (foot) and low Balinese ja (where), or 'where are your feet?'. The man was promptlY put down with the response: ' di atas tanahr.'. 'on the ground', in an equal confusion of lan guages. These retort s were duly circulated around the village with evident approbation. In a more serious vein, sound association occurs in cer tain rituals. The most elaborated use is found in mantenin padi , the main ceremony after the completion of the harvest, when the padi has already been stored in the granary, with offerings, ban ten , to the goddess of rice, Dewi Sri, in effigy in a decora ted bundle of rice placed by the eastern wall (for a synopsi s of the rice-cycle rites, see Table 2. and for the significance of the directions: 'The Path of the Soul' , in this VOlume). A different form i s found in two earlier rituals: nuasen. planting the duwasa (for the linked meanings, see van der Tuuk 1897). sacred clumps of padi used later to make the figure of the deity; and a small rite commonly held at the end of mebiyu kukung, which is considered to effect the 'marriage' of the rice, and sometime s ward off pe s t s as well. Finally, identical plants are included in the marriage ceremony, mesakapan, with a similar interpretation.
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Mantenin padi is performed some time after the har vest and dr ying of the grain (in Bali, this is with the ears still on the sta lk s, which requires early reaping ). In th eory, no rice can be so ld beforehand (Grader 1960: 277-8), although it is not unusual, in fa ct , for poor families to igno r e this injunction out of economic neceSSity, for the rite may take place months lat er, each household acting independentl y . Off erings of a relativ e l y elaborate character are placed in the granary, and at ritua l sites throughout the compound, particularl y in the ancestor shrine s . Some of the names a r e interesting, f or ex ample lumbung bek, meaning simply: full granary. These com pose part of a formidably complex and loca ll y variable system which, as Hooykaas has pointed out, remain s largel y un s tudied (C. Hooykaas 1973a : 169; for an introduction se e: Be lo 1953; J. Hooykaas 1961). ~1y concern here is instead with some of the ritual appur tenances in the form of a set of plants whi ch are placed at a remove from the principal offerings, on tIle outside walls of the granary . The classification of botanical species in Bali has been little examined, although some of thes e are list ed and their medicinal properties designated in the palm-leaf manuscript, the Taru Pramana which states how a cuI ture hero ~1pu Kuturan dis tinguished them . 9 Other woods are differentiated according to their purity, and hence suitability for ritual use. Many of the common names provided in the Taru Pramana are related to ordinary Balinese words in some form. For instance, the manu script includes: buyung- buyung putih (lit: white flies), or uyah-uyah (uyuh = salt). In certain cases , there is an apparent reference to morphologi cal or physiological feature s of the spe cies, so that tebel-tebel (tebel = thi c k) ha s both thick leaves and spreads fast (van der Tuuk 1897). For others, informants were aware of no explanation . For present purposes, it is ade quate to note these unexamined aspec t s of classi fi cation .
The species chosen for use in mantenin padi vary somewhat across the i sl and (cf . Wirz 1927: 316-7) . In Tengahpadang, twelve plants seem to comprise the available pool, from which tho se actually incorporated may be drawn. IO All were found growing either in th e house compounds, lanes or dry fields; but it is to be noted that many were not to be found in the vicinity of river-banks and none were distinguished for thriving in, or near, ricefields. it is possible that this may serve symboli ca ll y to underline the conceptual separation of the growing padi on the terraces from the dr y product s tored in the compound for consumption . The que s tion arises as to wh y these twelve species in particular should be se lect ed from all those known to adorn the sides of the granary . To the best of my knowledge, they are not used on any other rit ual occasion . Wirz ( 1927) has sugges ted that one reason may be their bitter taste or poisonous
effects, whi ch are believed to deter evil spIrIts and demonic influen ces , although he admits that this cannot furnish a com plete explanation . How ever , in his version the plants are hung around th e doorway as a barrier, not on the s ides as in Tengah This view also does not account for the many species padang. which are neither toxic no r considered potent against malevolent su pernatural beings . Further, one of these, kayu sugih, is in fact an ing redient of porridge and a dye-stuff as well; while tebel-tebel is a compound in ear medicine. Apart from this, they are apparently of little nutritional or practical value. So there are no obvious clues as to any systematic grounds for their inclusion to be gleaned from a study of their use, habitat or qualities, whi ch I coul d discover. Some might be included if a diver se , and un sa ti s factory, set of characteristi cs were made: as an example, inih- i nih is assumed to be propitiou s if it grows in the ancestral shrine area, but this merely compounds the difficulties . There is, however, one important wa y in which all these plants form a single class . This is their t erminological value for sound association. When I f i r st documented the cer emony , this wa s indicated to me with pride by some villagers . For, in contrast to much religious knowled ge , held to be the preserve o f the high cas te prie sts , Pedanda, and about which the peasants generally professed ignorance, they stated that they were aware of the significance of the leaves. In native exegesis, these are seen mainly as homonyms or assonants of terms referring to the attributes of proper, or ideal, agricultural product ion which it is intended to induce. It is worth examining the series in some detail to show just how perspicacious this commentary is . As the investigation of a number of different performances of th e rite s howed no discernible pattern in the order in which the plants were arranged, I shall take them as they occurred in the most inclusive instance. Tebel - tebel may be related to tebel, thick (repetition in Balinese indicates, among other things, pluralit y or emphasis).l1 Tegteg ha s a rang e of meanings, in cluding fixed or substantial; whil e paku kenying can be linked with paku, fern, and kenying , to smile or laugh. Inih-inih is of interest, as inih signifies: not quickly finished, used sparingly (van Ec k 1876). Nasi-nasi, in a similar fashion, can be treated among its other meaning s as a possi ble reduplication of nasi, cooked rice, hence food . There follow three plants: kayu padi, kayu emas and kayu sugih; kayu is the ordinary Balin ese h'ord for I'JQod, padi i s the Engl ish paddy, emas is commonly translated by gold (both the metal and the co lour), whil e sugih means wealthy or ri ch . Next is the curious sengseng catu , for sengseng generally s tand s for a stopper and catu is a measure for ri ce (with a hole in the bottom). The remaining terms are more complex. Sr i ben ben seems here to refer t o Sri, the goddess of ri ce , but also a word which
TABLE 1.
Analysis of Terms
Indigenous Exegesis
Comment s
TE'hel-tebcJ
t ebeL .. thick
so th~t the contents of the granary will be thick
also c~lled kayu upip, the tree of life.
Tegteg
1) 2)
fixed, substanti~l repair, recuperate 3) metegtega~ = relax
so that the padi will not be diminished, even if drawn upon often 2) the recuperation or relaxation after work
Paku Kenyillg
paku '" ferTl, vecetable kenying = smilQ, laugh
I) 2)
Inih-inih
inih = not qui c kly finished sparingly used
so that the padi in the granary cannot be finished
Desi~n;ltion
of
a
N
The terminological significance of plants in f.'antenill Padi
lant
Na~i
-nasi
Kayu
p~di
na8i
cooked rice, food
wood, l ree kayu the rice plant padi (e)roos gold (metal and colour)
Kayu emas
Kayu sugih
Sengseng catu
sugih
rich, wealthy
to be happy kenying is also kuning, yellow the colour of ripe padi propiti ous if this grows in the area for the ancestOr shrines
if there is rice, then there is food if there is padi, we are very happy 1)
so that the padi Io'ill he yellow like gold 2) then there will be riches like owning much gold
its leaves are all ingre dient in some offeriTl£s
so that we become rich
the leaves are used in sago porridge and give a green colour to some cakes
I) sengseng = cork , stopper catu .. measuring container for dehusked rice (be~s) with a small hole in the base
if the hole in the catu is closed up, then rice cannot pour out, so it stays full and brings wealth
Sri .. Dewi Sri, goddess of rice, also name of rice benben = wasp, (populous)
I) benben is emben, leafy, volumi nous or much 2} so that the growing rice will have thick leaves 3) if there is much rice, then our feelings are happy
2)
Sri benben
1)
""'"
TABLE I (Continued)
a
'"
Comments
Designation of Plant
Analysis of Terms
Indigenous exegesis
!l i ngding ahi
dingding = trellis woven fro~ coconut-leaf sometimes dinding = wall, screen a(h )i = sunlight, daylight
1) so that the padi will be surrounded by sunshine to make it dry 2) so that there will be a screen to protect the padi from pests and bad weather 3) dingding stands for dengdeng, to dry in the sun, so that the padi will dry in the sun
Pati (h) kala(h)
pati .. handle of knife (among varied meanings) patih = minister of a prince kalah '" defeated, lost kaLa'" type of demonic spi rit
1) the patin is defeated 2) a bad patin is defeated and dri ven away, and no longer oppresses the people 3) the knife-handle is defeated by the rice-stalks because they are so thick and numerous 4) the rice is so thick. a knife gets lost in it 5) pati is mati, dead; evil demons are destroyed so that there is peace
may be used to indicate padi; while benben can be a wasp. Of significance, though, the latter is held to be an assonant of emben, leafy or voluminous. Similarl y dingding ahi appears to be literally: dingding, a woven coconut-leaf trellis and a(h)i. da y- or sun -light. With a slight shift of the vowel-sounds, however, one obtains dengdeng, to dry in the sun. (This has been noted by van der Tuuk (189 7) and is a 1so the villagers I interpretation.) It may be worth recording that ding and deng are the terms for two notes in the Balinese pentatonic scale , the others being suitably: dong, du.ng and dang (~lcPhee 1966: 58 61). Of these plant s, those which are given in the Taru Pramana tend to be identified there as cool, etis, a quality applied inter alia to a household to indicate the absence of acrimony and an adequate supply of food, with a granary which diminishes slowly (popular opinion maintained that the second of these characteristics was the determinant of the first!). The final, and apparently least used plant is patilh) kala(h), the main one to present problems, not least as the Ba linese were uncertain whether it should be read as pati or patih. The latter is commonly applied to a traditional royal court official, but the former has a vast range of referents (see van der Tuuk 1897). Kalah may be translated as defeated or lost. In contrast, others thought that the word should be kala, a class of demonic spirit. At least one family did not include this species, as they were undecided as to its meaning and said that they feared the consequen ces were it to turn out to be 'defeated minister'. An ing enious, if unsubstantiated and somewhat ungrammatical ~ argument was put forward by some of the mare pensive, who surmised that it referred pati as the handle of a knife (or of the blade used to cut pad;, anggapan) and kalah. as either defeated or lost, to give; to lose the knife handle Cas the rice is so thick), or to defeat the knife (for the same reason). If nothing more, this example should at least provide SOme insight into the processes of reasoning in symbolism developed by villagers. This discussion indicates then that the names of the plants included in man teni n padi ma y signify, among other things, the following: the fertility of the rice plants, the full matu ration and subsequent drying of the crop, prOlific yields and a secure supply of food which does not run out quickly, and so brings prosperit y, happiness and relaxation from wo rk. It may be recalled that some of the terms for offerings inside the granary referred to similar concerns. These themes are expatia ted upon by villagers, and the more frequent associations are outlined in Table 1. Among the interesting features are the ways in which indigenous commentaries emphasis e the recapitula tion of the later stages of the ag ricultural cycle, and the ma terial qualities desired in the harvest, with its less tangible benefits. Whereas it would be difficult to explain the selec tion of plants in terms of their observable characteristics, an
64
analysis of the sound associations pOints to a remarkably con sistent system. A not dissimilar theme occurs in nuasen, but in contrast, the number of plant s is much smaller and more clearl y circumscri bed. After the bunche s of young shoots have been planted to provide the sac red rice, lengths of about a foot of the folia ge of the following species are temporarily inserted in the mud to gether with them: dalp)dap I? crythrina lit hosperma, a legumi nou s plant), kunyit, turmeric, keladi , taro and andong (uniden tified, but see descriptions in de Clercq 1909 : 210; \I,'irz 1927: 271). A shoot of pinang, areca-nut palm is an optional addition. Wirz (1927: 296) has suggested that it is the type of growth of these particular plants which lends itself to symbO lization. For in sta nce, dadap is considered to be very fast-growing and the vertical stem of the areca-nut palm may exemplify the ideal form of tIle ripening padi plant. On being ta xed with this view, my informants readily conceded that fast-maturing, thick leaves and so forth might be involved. They argued in response, though, with a certain logic, that this applied to innumerable other species which might hav e served equally well. Instead. they referred me once again to the terminology, pointing out that this was not so easily substitutable. The choi ce was expressed in terms of a short ditt),: don dadap apang etis,
kunyit mara mekelenyit,
keladi apang nadi,
andong megelendong.
which they tranSlated, somewhat roughlY, as:
dadap leaves so that Cthe ground) will be cool'
kunyit, it lives (or sprouts on planting) ,
keladi so that it will grow,
andong - it becomes pregnant.
(*
etis , the state of ritual coolness discu ssed above, is highly desirable and a generally believed qualit y of dadap.)
The last three lines demonstrate the assonance between the term for the plant on the one hand, and the appropriate development of the rice on the other. Dadap once again stands apart, but Wirzls explanation in terms of its natural features is weak, as dadap is perhaps the most widely-used plant in ritual to sugge s t coolness in contexts where growth is hardly involved, varying from wayang l emah, the more or les s purely reli gious form of the shadow-play. to metelah-telah. th e purification of th e house compound after death. The same ingredi ent s (kunyit, keladi and andong) are in cluded in the rite of mebanten tipat balang ~ing tipat kukur sidayu, commonly tacked onto mebiyu kukung (Table 2) . In thi s case, they are suspended together with cakes, different types of rice and com est ible s from a miniature (dadap) shoulder-pole, 65
tegen-tegenan, and carried three times (proper l y clockwise) round the ricefi eld containing the sacred rice. This i s sa id to compl ete th e 'wedding ' of the padi which i s now permitted to become 'pregnant', beZ ing (see abo ve) . The s ame ritual s hould e r pole is borne by the mal e, while circumambulating the bride, during the ma rriage ceremony for human beings. In these l ast two instances, the rh yme can reasona b ly be construed as a r efe rence to the fecundity approp riate to mat r imony, but an inter pretation of the orde r s ugges ted by Wirz above, would seem cur ous l y indirect and compli ca ted. The occasi ons for use of thi s set of plants pose s a problem. On the one hand , the same tri ad is found at two separate stages of the rice cycle - at the moment of transplanting a.nd then again before the emergence of the panicle and flowerin g . On the other , while mebanten tipat ba~ng ping tipat kukur s idayu is generally agreed to be a neces sa ry pre- conditi on for the success ful fer tili sa tion of the rice flowers, at others it is st ated that the purpose of the rite is t o ward off pe sts at the time that the seeds are maturing! One po ss ible resolution of this difficulty may lie in a possible diff~rence of time- scale implied in agricultural rit ual. 12 This discussion has, 1 hope, shown that ther e is some evidence of the organi sed us e of sound asso cia t ion in a range of social contexts, includ ing the formation of symbo l s in Balinese ritual. This is not to deny the possible existence of other, or even prior . connexions. There ma y a l so be diffe r ences be tween the va rious cer emonie s recorded above, and there i s undou b t ed l y a degree of fle xibilit y in the reper tor y of plants adopted in different regions, which I ha ve not been able to s tudy in de tail . Non et heless, associations bas ed on verbal similari ty do seem to be an impo rtant element in ce rtain symbolic sets in Bali. Thi s approach also has the advantage that it is able to provide a rest i vely s imple key to the system underlying the se lec tion.
This symbol i c use of common plants i s ')ne of the most co herent and exp li ci t aspects of the comp lex of rice - cyc le rit es. As a whole , these reiterate similar concern s to those di scuss ed above. by invoking the assistance of sup ernatural beings in the re-en actment of the stages of deve l opment of the ri ce crop . through prn)'ers and offerings. The form of parti c ipation and the tim ing of the ceremonies pOint, however, to the inadequacies in a numb e r of frequently assumed, or appar entl y promising, interpretati ons of ritual. Whether or not there is synchron y between rit e and rice growth may be cri ti ca l t o the applica bility of some types o f argument, but it is effectively irrele vant t o a cons id era tion of the ritual cyc l e in term s of pro vi ding an explanatory framework for the s uccess or failure of agriculture, by ascri bing authority to agencies of posited,
but un ve rifiable. influence. At the same time, this offers an alternative to the public r ecogn ition of the underlying structural problems of i rrigatio n associations. It s hould be stressed i m mediately though that what is bein g proposed here is essent i a lly a fun ctional view . with its attendant limitations. One of the rather unusual features of most of these rice cycle rites i s that, with the except ion of the templ e festivals, nyungsung and ngesaba which involve both collective performances in the subak temple, the Pura Masceti, and individual ones in the fields, there i s no real gathering nor co rporate ritual ac tion on the part of the association during whi c h so lidarit y might be re-affirmed . 13 For the ceremoni es are genera ll y carried out on the given occa s ion for each household s eparate ly by a member at t he shrine in its own fields. They have in many ways the cha r ac ter of private rites, in which the collective is restrict ed to subordinati on to a set of common ritual r egulations (Goody 1961: 146). The theory that these are my st ic a l devices to deal with practical defi ciencies presents problems in turn, in so far a s they 'may provide a way of coping with situations of misfortune or danger with which there are no ot her means of dealing' in the absence of empirical knowledge (Beattie 1964: 207). On the one hand, the Balinese have developed an intri ca t e pre-industrial tec hnolog y for handl i ng the probl ems of irrigation, fertili sation of the soi l and so forth, even if it is no t always full y utilised; on the ot he r , there is often a di screpancy between the timing of crisis and remedy. For many mi sfo rtunes, there are clea rly laid down and im mediate ritual mec han i sms of avoidance or redr ess . This applies in the face of uncertainty or danger. So, before trucks or buses cross some of the more ricket y bridge s which span the in numerable gorges, offe rings are not uncommon l y made at the way side. More dramatically, t en days before the National Elections in 1971, the head of the administrative village decided t o or ga ni ze a mass prayer in Ten ga hpadang to ask for the safety (se~et) and well-being of the community. Equally, i n the event of fallS, illness or occasionally other mishaps, ritual re s ponses are evok ed. When a giant banyan, waringin, tree in the set tl ement cracked open one night during a st orm, the village sen ior officials ra pidly summoned the tri ests to deliberate and it was concluded that forty-two day s 4 (t he product of a six - and seven-day week cycle) of public ritual wa s necessary t o ensure the neutrali sa tion of possible adverse consequences. Here, ce r emonies are held in an ticipati on of dange r , or in prompt reply to it. In s harp contra s t, rice-cyc le ceremonies are scheduled according to calendar s which define religiously au sp i c ious periods, and so do not, in fact, necessar ily fit the c rit ical stages of agriculture. This creates certa in difficult ies for arguments abou t ritual which are based on their function of ord ering atten tion or ex perience. Even Douglas' view that ritual in general
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'provides a focussing mechanism. a method of mnemonics and a control for experience' (1966: 63), applied to agricultural rites of this sort~ appears a little odd. For, it would seem to imply framing the wrong moment. and a mnemonic device for an eminently visible, and more or less inevitable, natural process.
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